Tirumala: Air Fore, Navy to fight fire

Tirumala: A team of 100 Army people will be involved in fire rescue operation at Tirumala forests. The fire that got ignited on Tuesday noon could not be controlled, even after two days of unremitting operation.

The fire has been spread around 3km distance. The forest possessions have been burnt to Yash in as many as 5,000 hectares. As the fire could not be controlled, the teams of octopus, NDR, Air Force and Navy have been already arrived at Renigunta to take part in Fire Rescue operations. ESL Narasimhan, the governor of Andhra Pradesh has urged the Air Force and Navy teams to deliver their help.

MI-17 aircrafts which are capable of sprinkling chemicals from the sky to put out the fire will be used for the fire fighting. Already the recce team has carried out the pilot operation to access the situation. The TTD officials have frozen the flying restrictions to ensure the operations.

From the other end the forest department DG, SS Garbiel has reviewed the situation with his counterparts from other states. Discussions are being held on the matter of safeguarding the wild animals.